GILBERT: State needs to get teachers ready for Common Core

A broad consensus appears to be developing in Lansing around the subjects of teacher evaluation and training, according to a education expert who is following the issues closely.

Sarah W. Lenhoff, director of policy and research at the Royal Oak-based Education Trust-Midwest, seems confident the state will act to reform what ETM has called a deficient system of reviewing teacher performance.

On the training side, teachers need to learn how to implement the Common Core standards in their classrooms. Lenhoff thinks a test aligned to Common Core could be ready for third through eighth graders and high school juniors by the 2014-15 school year so teachers need to be ready.

Michigan’s needs to implement a statewide system of educator evaluation and support, according to a recently released ETM study entitled “Supporting Michigan’s Teachers: Smart Implementation of High Standards, Training, and Educator Evaluation.”

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“At the direction of the state legislature, an internationally renowned leader in teacher preparation, Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball of the University of Michigan, led a group of experts in developing blueprint for this system,” the ETM study said. “Now the legislature needs to approve that blueprint and adequately fund its implementation by spring of 2014.”

Michigan is behind places like Tennessee and Kentucky in terms of implementing Common Core and training teachers to do so.

“Tennessee is seeing remarkable gains in student growth,” said Amber Arellano, ETM executive director, as the study was released. “We can learn a lot from them. We need to ensure no teacher is left behind in Michigan in the transition to higher standards.”

Tennessee “has recognized that just handing teachers the new standards is insufficient. Earlier this year, Tennessee invested resources to directly — and intensively — train more than 35,000 educators across the state,” the ETM study said.

Common Core is not coming a minute too soon for Michigan students.

“Compared to their counterparts in other states, Michigan’s students have lost substantial ground over the last decade,” the ETM study said. “Our state has among the worst achievement gaps in the nation and new 2013 national assessment data show that our state is just not keeping up with the rest of the country — in achievement or improvement.

“Our African-American children are among the lowest-performing in the entire country. But even our white and higher income students are lagging increasingly behind their peers elsewhere. Clearly, we have to get moving — and fast.”

And just what is Common Core?

ETM’s Lenhoff used the example of math. Instead of just learning facts like multiplication tables, for instance, students would be taught how to understand and be able to apply the knowledge to practical situations.

Students will be able to dig deeper into fewer topics. Instead of the curriculum being a mile wide and an inch deep, it will be an inch wide and a mile deep, she said. The goal is to equip the student with better critical thinking skills.

Everything is designed to make students more competitive in the global market. The Common Core standards cover math and reading.

The results should be exciting for parents. They will be able to learn the trajectory their child is on toward the ACT college preparatory exam as early as second grade.

The legislature is likely to take up issues pertaining to implementation of Common Core early next year.

Glenn Gilbert is executive editor of The Oakland Press. Contact him at glenn.gilbert@oakpress.com or 248-745-4587. Follow him on Twitter @glenngilbert2. View his blog at glenngilbert2.blogspot.com